Posted tagged ‘light-gun’

Today is the first day of the GTI Asia China Expo and that means more arcade games will be coming to light, especially as the Chinese arcade market has virtually exploded in recent memory (perhaps it helps that consoles are technically banned there where arcades are not). Unfortunately arcade news coming out of China can be very hit-or-miss, sometimes screenshots and video are plentiful for a game (like Crazy SpeedArcade) but most of the time it’s a miss with the only thing we get is a blurry shot of a random cabinet at a trade show or we get a thumbnail shot of a cabinet on a webpage. This will be another post of the latter as Chinese developer Belrare once again has a new product to show off but it’s nowhere to be found on their website, they haven’t responded to inquiries on their content and whether we will see it at IAAPA is completely unknown.

The new game is called Dino Survivor. It looks similar to Let’s Go Jungle or Deadstorm Pirates but this time it’s about hunting dinosaurs. One thing to help this stand out could be that it uses stereoscopic 3D which many other Chinese games have been pushing lately and it also has mounted gatling guns (ala Vulcan-M). It also appears that they may be giving this one a good push in the graphics department where terms like “normal mapping”, “dynamic ocean lighting effects”, “3D particle system”, and others are part of this game’s visual resumé. So that gives us something to look forward to if we ever get a chance to see the game in more detail and see if it uses any of the modern techniques properly. At least the cabinet looks awesome, I like the vivid artwork it has although it could use a larger viewing window to help avoid the “den of iniquity” problem these kind of theater cabinets tend to run into.

The Am-Net Blog has pictures of the marketing materials for a new Konami light-gun game testing in Japan called Space Agent. Not much is known about the new game at this point but what is clear is that it uses a mostly enclosed cabinet, it has e-Amusement features and mounted guns which add an element of “Augmented Reality” to the game. On top of the guns is a screen that has something to do with that AR feature, most likely in finding enemies. In that way it’s actually like Silent Scope but we’ll have to wait and see how similar it might be to SS. The cabinet does look cool as do the guns but they could always tweak the design before the final release.

Space Agent is currently testing at the ROUND Store in Yokohama Nishiguchi, right next to the Terminator Salvation game there judging by the picture to the right here. It’s too bad AM-Net can’t take any pictures or video of the cabinet directly (Konami is usually pretty harsh on photos at loctests, although occasionally they let up on it or people manage to sneak it) but if we’re lucky someone will post some of that soon.

UPDATED: Japanese site Small Room Aries has posted details about the game from the location test. The level provided has you defending New York City from alien attack and it appears that there is a special mode for the cameras mounted on the guns. They mention that the game will often switch into this mode, probably as the aliens are hiding and you have to uncover them. The guns have two firing features, a regular shot and a pump shot, and instead of reloading you have to watch an overheat meter. Even though it’s fairly large, I like the cabinet design. While it’s one of those that could become an infamous “den of iniquity” cabinet due to the enclosure, it’s very eye-catching.

It’s been a few months since we first saw Taito’s newest foray into the realm of light-gun shooters, Gaia Attack 4 and today they released a full trailer for the title on their Japanese Youtube channel. To bring you up to speed on this in case you missed it, GA4 is a four-player light-gun shooter that overlays CG effects that you shoot on top of real world footage. Is there a chance that this could see an international release? We’re not sure but seeing how they are trying out Elevator Action Death Parade internationally, you never say never. A four-player light-gun arcade game is also something that is a novelty these days with which can grab it extra attention based upon that fact alone. The last one I know of was Konami’s Warzaid and that came out in 2003 (as a sidenote, the only one I have ever seen was when I was in Brazil recently).

It’s been a few months since we first saw Taito’s newest foray into the realm of light-gun shooters, Gaia Attack 4 and today they released a full trailer for the title on their Japanese Youtube channel. To bring you up to speed on this in case you missed it, GA4 is a four-player light-gun shooter that overlays CG effects that you shoot on top of real world footage. Is there a chance that this could see an international release? We’re not sure but seeing how they are trying out Elevator Action Death Parade internationally, you never say never. A four-player light-gun arcade game is also something that is a novelty these days with which can grab it extra attention based upon that fact alone. The last one I know of was Konami’s Warzaid and that came out in 2003 (as a sidenote, the only one I have ever seen was when I was in Brazil recently).

The only disappointment I had at Amusement Expo this year was I went in expecting to see an actual cabinet of the new Sega shooter Let’s Go Island and instead they only had a video preview of the game running on a screen there. The same thing happened at EAG so we’ve all been wondering when an actual cabinet of the game would be showing up. Sega has finally unveiled the new game at their new Club Sega entertainment venue in Akihabara Japan and while there is no video I can find of the game in action yet, AM-Net’s blog happens to have the first picture of the motion cabinet in all of it’s glory. The technology they are using for this looks just like what they are using on their new Hummer Mini-Motion cabinet (which we saw at Amusement Expo) and Kevin Williams of the Stinger Report has already pointed out that the game reminds him a lot of Sega’s old Rail Chase arcade title. No word on a release date just yet but if the game is this far along then I imagine that we’ll be seeing it come out this fall sometime worldwide.

The only disappointment I had at Amusement Expo this year was I went in expecting to see an actual cabinet of the new Sega shooter Let’s Go Island and instead they only had a video preview of the game running on a screen there. The same thing happened at EAG so we’ve all been wondering when an actual cabinet of the game would be showing up. Sega has finally unveiled the new game at their new Club Sega entertainment venue in Akihabara Japan and while there is no video I can find of the game in action yet, AM-Net’s blog happens to have the first picture of the motion cabinet in all of it’s glory. The technology they are using for this looks just like what they are using on their new Hummer Mini-Motion cabinet (which we saw at Amusement Expo) and Kevin Williams of the Stinger Report has already pointed out that the game reminds him a lot of Sega’s old Rail Chase arcade title. No word on a release date just yet but if the game is this far along then I imagine that we’ll be seeing it come out this fall sometime worldwide.

While Taito hasn’t held a very strong presence in the arcade scene outside of Japan for the past few years, they still have been out there, getting a game out in European or US markets every now and then. I have a Chase HQ2 sitting in my arcade which was released in 2007 and we have seen their light-gun shooter Panic Museum at recent tradeshows. But as for what games they produce will make it out of Japan and into English versions, that’s usually anyone’s guess. But now, Taito has launched an English version of their arcade website and have added a couple of games to the roster that are listed as available: Chase HQ2, Panic Museum, Hopping Road and surprisingly Elevator Action: Death Parade.

We’ve heard of all of these games before, including the new light-gunified version of Elevator Action, but I was never sure if that would see an international release. They say on the site that it’s been available since January 2010 but I have not heard of a distributor in Europe or the US that is carrying the game yet. For example, Electrocoin distributes Taito products in Europe (including one title not listed on the Taito site, D1GP) but they don’t have the new EA listed. ICE is carrying Panic Museum in the US but they also don’t have EA there. So until we hear something from a distributor we’ll have to put this into the ‘maybe’ column – the Taito site also shows Half-Life 2 Arcade on their titles list and I don’t know of anyone who carries that game outside of Japan.

What would your thoughts on the new Elevator Action getting an international release? I haven’t played it myself and I do wonder how the concept behind the game translates over to a light-gun fare(the original EA titles were side-view vertical scrollers, my favorite being Elevator Action Returns) but I like the usage of the elevator doors in front of the screen. If you missed out on coverage of Elevator Action: Death Parade, here’s a trailer below and here is an article we ran on the game last March.

Also if you are interested in checking out Taito’s new site, click here. They also have a Twitter account where they have been updating it with generous amounts of information on the past history of the company, which includes details and pictures on games as they were in development as well as new things that the company is working on.

UPDATE: I tweeted to Taito asking about the availability of the game in the US and here is their reply: “Death Parade is an arcade-only release, but if overseas arcades want to carry it we’re happy to work with them!” I just sent another tweet asking how that works and I’ll share it with you here as well.

UPDATE 2: Taito replied: “Please contact us at globalsupport@taito.co.jp and we’ll put you in touch with the right people!” So any operators out there, if you’re interested in getting a hold of this game, that’s the place to go to. I would love to really see this in action and I am quite curious to know how it would do in the US.